1. Field
This application relates to adjusting the probability that a particular presentation, including a media file, in a presentation set will be randomly selected for presentation on an electronic device based on user behavior.
2. Prior Art
Many electronic products designed to present media files have a mode of presenting the media files in a random order. For instance, on an MP3 player, there is normally a “random play mode” (or “shuffle mode”) that will play all media files in a pseudo-random order that is selected by means of various well-known computer programs and methods. This random order is likely to be other than the order that appears on the device's play list, when it is played in non-random order. For instance, the device could contain three songs: A, B, and C. In “non-random mode”, the device plays in the order of A first, B second, and C third. This order was either directly selected by the user, or indirectly selected by the user. It can be “indirectly selected by the user” because, for instance, this ordering is related to the chronological order that the songs were added to the device (A was placed on the device first, B second, and C first—following the “FIFO” principle of play). Regardless of how the order of play (A first, B second, and C third) was initially selected, that is the order that the device always plays the songs in when it is in non-random mode, unless and until the user manually changes the order. By way of contrast, in random play mode, the device, using various techniques that are well-known in the art of computer science, may play B first, then C, then B again, and then A. Not only does the device play songs “randomly” in random play mode, but it also may play the song more than once, before it has played other songs on the list—just as a matter of chance. It should also be noted here that “random play mode” does not mean that a new list of media files is being randomly created in a new order, and then displayed in that new order. “Random play mode”, as used here, simply means that the device is randomly selecting a media file from the set list of media files, and then playing that media file. A new list of media files is not being created. For instance, the MP3 player that contains 3 songs: A, B, and C, is not creating a new, randomized list of songs when it is in random play mode, it is simply randomly selecting a song, either A, B, or C, from the list of available songs and then playing it for the user. The original order of songs, A, B, and C, remains intact, and no new list of songs is created.
A variation, also disclosed in the prior art, on the above-described “random play mode” is for the device to adjust the probability of individual media files being presented by noting and responding to user behavior in response to a particular presentation. This allows the user to influence the probability that particular media files will be played, in accordance with their preferences, while still maintaining an element of randomness regarding what is played. Most users of devices such as MP3 players normally have preferences regarding what types of songs on their play list they would like to hear, or not hear, and these preferences can change over time. This variation on the above-described “random play mode” allows the user to reduce the probability that a particular song would play on their MP3 player by skipping past a particular song. This is described here as “skip-weighting”. (“Skipping” is typically accomplished on an MP3 player by pressing a button that orders the device to play another song. On a computer randomly displaying images on a computer screen “skipping” can be accomplished by allowing the user to press a button on the keyboard, such as the space bar, which causes the computer to discontinue displaying the current image and to display a new image.) The more the user “skips” past a particular song, the more the probability of the song being played in the future would be reduced. This variation on random play mode would also allow a user to increase the probability that a particular song on an MP3 player would be heard by skipping past other songs on the play list more often than a particular song, thereby increasing its relative probability of being randomly selected by the MP3 player in the future.
A problem with skip weighting in the prior art is that it does not take into account when the user skips past a particular media file. The amount of time a user takes before skipping past a media file currently displayed would typically correlate with whether the user found the media file of interest or not. For instance, if the user skips a visual media file (called “File A”) after 15 seconds of display, and skips another media file (called “File B”) after 2 seconds of display, then, other things equal, the 13 second difference would indicate that the user is more interested in File A than in File B.